|
Dear Reader: This complete book has been hosted free-of-charge to all users on the Internet since 1999, at private expense, with never any charge being asked. As a result, the hit rate on this site has steadily grown, to the point where it now routinely has more than 1,5 million hits per month. The bandwidth usage costs have now become enormous, but are all still borne privately. If you have benefited from this site, and feel you would like to make a contribution to keeping it on the Internet, you are invited to make a small voluntary contribution to its bandwidth costs.
Thank you. |
Appendix 10: CLASSICAL ROMAN WRITERS ON RACE MIXING IN ROME
Racial mixing was noted as a phenomenon by numerous Classical Roman authors.
Interracial unions were common enough in the time of the Roman satirist Juvenal (55-27 AD) for him to make specific mention of them. In his Satire VI, Juvenal, while discussing the advisability or otherwise of abortions, warns husbands that their wives may bear mulatto children:
The Roman writer Martial (38-104 AD), in attacking misconduct by Roman wives, mentions a Roman woman who bore her husband seven children, none of whom is of his ‘race.’ Marital says:
Roman women who had mulatto children were often charged with adultery in Roman courts, with the accusation being that the mixed race nature of their children was evidence of their adultery with slaves or non-White males other than their husbands. A common defense used in Roman courts was that of “maternal impression” which claimed that babies in the womb could be affected by the mother merely viewing, or being close to, non-Whites.
As ridiculous as this defense is, it was used by the famous orator Quintilian (35 – 96 AD) to successfully defend a Roman woman on an adultery charge (Liber Hebr. Quest. In Genesim. Ed Migne: Lat. T. 23, p 985.)
Another famous Roman orator, Calpurnius Flaccus, (circa 2nd Century AD) also discussed the issue of “maternal impression” as an explanation for mulatto children, writing in a work entitled “De Natus Aethiops” (‘Of Ethiopian Birth’) he makes the white wife of a mulatto child say:
Plutarch (De sera numinis vindicta 2I [563]) tells the story of a woman who gave birth to a black child and was accused of adultery, but subsequent investigation revealed that her great grandfather was an Ethiopian.
The Roman scholar Pliny (23-79 AD) mentioned yet another example of mulatto children:
THE 'HIDEOUS HYBRID" - CLAUDIAN
Racial mixing also took place in the Roman colonies, and specifically the colony they called ‘Africa’ (this was then what is now known as North Africa, and the Roman name was then given the entire continent).
Claudian (365 – 408 AD) raged against the racial mixing taking place under the ‘Moor’ (‘Maur’) Gildo, who had been appointed to be ruler of the colony of Africa by the emperor Valentian.
Claudian wrote:
All material (c) copyright Ostara Publications, 1999. Re-use for commercial purposes strictly forbidden. |
|
Dear Reader: This complete book has been hosted free-of-charge to all users on the Internet since 1999, at private expense, with never any charge being asked. As a result, the hit rate on this site has steadily grown, to the point where it now routinely has more than 1,5 million hits per month. The bandwidth usage costs have now become enormous, but are all still borne privately. If you have benefited from this site, and feel you would like to make a contribution to keeping it on the Internet, you are invited to make a small voluntary contribution to its bandwidth costs.
Thank you. |